By Ike Uchechukwu CALABAR

The National Association of Seadogs (NAS), Frigate Deck, has said that mental health challenges are treatable and should not be treated as a death sentence, urging the public to stop stigmatising people living with such conditions.

The President of the Frigate Deck, Comrade Ken Bassey, spoke in Calabar at the weekend during the commemoration of World Mental Health Day, organised by the association in collaboration with the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar.

Bassey said persons experiencing mental health crises deserved a chance to live, stressing that they were human beings whose dignity must be protected at all times.

“We are here to collaborate with the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar on the celebration of World Mental Health Day,” he said.

He said mental health went beyond schizophrenia and similar conditions, adding that mental illness was like any other disease, such as malaria or hypertension.

“So people should not stigmatize patients who have mental health issues,” he said.

According to him, the event was an enlightenment campaign aimed at creating extensive awareness about the presence of the hospital and telling the public that help was available.

“Mental health issues cannot be a death sentence. They are treatable. So that’s the very essence of celebrating the World Mental Health Day, which is set aside by the United Nations to mark today,” he said.

Bassey said the National Association of Seadogs played a critical role in educating the public on the harm caused by stigmatisation of patients with mental health conditions.

“We are trying also to collaborate with the hospital that look, this is not an ill, it’s something that can be for anybody,” he said.

Ends